Liu Ting stared blankly at the retreating figure of Zhang Wei until it shrank into a tiny black speck and completely disappeared from view.
Even now, she still felt like all of this was somewhat unreal, yet the various discomforts on her body were starkly, cruelly real. The back of her hand, scratched raw by tree branches, burned with a fiery pain; her cheeks were sunburned, red, and hot; and her whole body itched unbearably. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were dirty, her pants were torn, and she felt an absolute disaster from head to toe.
“Playing hard to get. This must be a game of playing hard to get.”
“Zhang Wei, do you really think that with a trick like this, I’ll let you get your way?”
“Don’t even dream about it. Educated Youth Wang and I are a match made in heaven.”
“I refuse to believe it. What other educated youths can do, why on earth shouldn’t I, Liu Ting, be able to do?”
“Isn’t it just picking tea seeds? Educated Youth Wang is such a good person, he’ll definitely share some of the workload with me.”
“Right, Educated Youth Wang will definitely help me.”
“Educated Youth Wang and I are a match made in heaven. We’ll pass the college entrance exams together and become cadres together.”
“Hmph! Once I become a cadre, you, Zhang Wei, will be the very first person I take a knife to.”
Rumble~
Liu Ting’s stomach let out an uncooperative growl. After doing physical labor, picking tea seeds made a person hungry fast. Dragging her exhausted body, Liu Ting walked toward the production brigade’s mess hall.
Over the past two years, other educated youths had always pooled their money and cooked their meals together; only she, Liu Ting, had the qualification to eat right alongside the cadres in the brigade’s mess hall.
Before she even reached the brigade headquarters, Liu Ting’s mouth was already watering. A rich aroma of braised pork was drifting out from the mess hall. In this day and age, even the brigade headquarters didn’t have much surplus grain, and they couldn’t afford to eat meat more than a few times a month.
Liu Ting subconsciously quickened her pace. The moment she stepped through the mess hall doors, the cadres and privileged connections already seated inside snapped their heads around to look at her in unison.
Liu Ting felt thoroughly uncomfortable under all those stares, but the overwhelming sensation of hunger still drove her forward toward her usual seat.
The next second, fury flared up inside Liu Ting.
“You damned mute, get lost right now! Who told you to sit in my seat?”
Li Hui clutched the hem of her shirt and instantly stood up, shrinking away in fright until she pressed against the base of the wall to steady herself.
Watching Li Hui’s flustered, at-a-loss appearance, Liu Ting felt a rush of complete clarity and supreme satisfaction wash over her.
“What are you still standing around here for? This is the brigade’s mess hall. Is this any place for a mute like you? Why aren’t you getting lost?”
Being a mute, Li Hui had been used to being bullied ever since she was a child. She had lost count of how many times things harsher and more outrageous than this had happened. Not daring to meet Liu Ting’s eyes, she hunched her head down, skirted along the corner of the wall, and headed out the door.
Right as she reached the mess hall entrance, Li Hui took a deep, heavy breath. The meaty fragrance from the big pots in the mess hall made her involuntarily slow her pace. Just getting to smell it a little longer felt like she had profited; after all, she didn’t belong in a place like this anyway.
Not long after Li Hui slipped away, Zhang Shengli and several other cadres timed their arrival to walk into the mess hall. As the brigade leader of the Red Star Production Brigade, he still needed to maintain a certain aura of grand importance. If he didn’t make the common folks wait just a little bit, how would anyone know the sheer hardship and dedication with which he, Zhang Shengli, bled heart and soul for the brigade headquarters?
Carrying an enamel teacup, with an autumn jacket draped over his shoulders and his two empty sleeves flapping back and forth, Zhang Shengli felt like an absolute powerhouse. After all, according to the movies, high-ranking cadres always dressed this way.
The mess hall cook wiped down the grease-slicked table several times with a rag, then eagerly reached out to take Zhang Shengli’s enamel cup.
“Brigade Leader, I’ll go get you a fresh cup of hot tea. Today really is thanks to you; life in our brigade is getting more and more hopeful by the day. Look at that, we’re eating braised pork again today. All of this is thanks to our Great Leader Zhang’s brilliant guidance!”
The people around nodded along one after another, and a tidal wave of flattery instantly broke out.
“Exactly, exactly! Under our Brigade Leader’s wise leadership, life in our brigade is only going to get better and better.”
“Brigade Leader Zhang, you’ve worked hard! So hard!”
“Brigade Leader Zhang, you’ve really been putting yourself through a lot!”
Zhang Shengli had experienced this exact scene countless times; it was the mandatory ritual before every meal served at the mess hall. Zhang Shengli raised his hands slightly and pressed down to quiet the crowd’s flattery.
“I am not bitter, nor am I tired! To serve the people—no matter how bitter or exhausting it is, it is a happy bitterness and exhaustion, a joyful bitterness and exhaustion, a bumper-harvest bitterness and exhaustion!”
“Wonderful, wonderful~”
“Brigade Leader Zhang truly is a fine cadre who loves the people like his own children!”
Once the whole routine was completed, Zhang Shengli gave a grand wave of his hand, and the cook finally announced that dinner was served.
Having thoroughly indulged his craving for official authority, Zhang Shengli finally found time to sit down. The table where Zhang Shengli sat was raised one step higher than the rest, allowing him to easily take in a panoramic view of the entire mess hall at a glance.
Smash!
With a heavy, authoritative slap against the table top, Zhang Shengli slammed his hand down so hard that the cook almost dropped the dishes he was carrying. The people who had just been chatting and laughing instantly shut their mouths, and the venue fell dead silent in an instant.
“Educated Youth Liu, why are you sitting here?”
Zhang Shengli’s stern demand frightened Liu Ting so badly that her lovely face drained of color and she couldn’t even speak properly.
“Ch-Chief Zhang… I, I’ve always sat right here…”
“Silence! Who gave you permission to call me Chief Zhang? Don’t go trying to cozy up and claim false relations with me. That seat is reserved for the warehouse keeper’s assistant. Let me ask you, what kind of work did you do this morning?”
As soon as the crowd heard this, they knew right away that Zhang Shengli was stepping in to back Li Hui up, and they immediately rushed to hand him the knives.
“Brigade Leader, she went to pick tea seeds this morning.”
“Brigade Leader, the warehouse keeper’s assistant was cursed and driven away by her.”
“Brigade Leader, you have no idea how venomous Educated Youth Liu’s tongue is. She kept calling Assistant Li a mute—over and over again, she kept calling her that and even told Assistant Li to get lost, practically crying the poor girl out of the place.”
Smash!
Zhang Shengli slammed his hand onto the table once more.
“Educated Youth Liu, do you take the rules of our brigade as a child’s game? Or do you simply not take me, Zhang Shengli, seriously? Militia, escort Educated Youth Liu outside. From now on, without my personal permission, Educated Youth Liu is not allowed to step foot into the brigade headquarters.”
Receiving the order, two militiamen grabbed the still-dazed Liu Ting by the arms, treating her just like a little chick, and dragged her straight out.
Zhang Shengli tapped his finger against the table, beat by beat. This time, he was genuinely angry. Although Zhang Wei had brought Li Hui home without holding a wedding banquet or getting a marriage certificate, which of the cadres present didn’t know what was going on? With so many people witnessing it, Li Hui had actually been driven off with insults—this meant Liu Ting didn’t respect Zhang Wei at all, and didn’t take him, Zhang Shengli, seriously either.
“Our Red Star Production Brigade is a collective. If we are missing even a single person, this collective of ours is incomplete. I, Zhang Shengli, will never abandon a single person.”
“Tiezhu, put the food away for now. We won’t start eating until Li Hui gets here…”
Hearing Zhang Shengli’s words, everyone present felt their scalps go numb. Originally, watching Liu Ting curse out Li Hui had just been a bit of entertainment to watch the show, but who would have thought that while trying to watch some gossip, their meal would end up flying away?
“What are you standing around for? Why aren’t you out there looking for her?”
At the deputy brigade leader’s command, the crowd finally scattered like startled birds, rushing out the doors to search.